So as some of you may have been following there has been a big upset in the past week about Pay-To-Win servers and Mojang has hence resovled to do something about it. The result has been a backlash on any server that operates as a business or turns a profit in any way other then "pure" donations, anything that might have some conflict with the End User Licence Agreement (EULA). In essence Mojang has announced that they are against servers being used as anything but amateur "fun" side hobbys and will be changing their EULA to be further in tune with this, but don't take my word for it and let's have a look at the evidence and Mojang's statements:

Firstly the EULA;Their "One Major Rule" is the only thing in question here, that states;

You Cannot• make commercial use of anything we‘ve made;• try to make money from anything we‘ve made;It also includes modified versions of a Game, part of it or anything else we‘ve made.

My initial interpretation of this is that this would include any items and/or abilities already located within the game and in addition any modifications to the client itself. Also any of these included within a server that runs the Minecraft client. MCPVP has taken action to avoid this clause with the retirement of HG kits that's sole benefits were items already included in the game (chemist only gaining potions etc.). However in a statement by a Mojang Employee Erik Broes this includes plugins as well.

doesn't matter at all, based on plugins or not, you cannot make money with Minecraft without our permission :)

While I disagree that plugins that offer entirely new features or effects that aren't just modified existing content are included in this, in Mojangs perspective they are. Legally this would mean the sales of anything into a minecraft client is in breach of the EULA. What this means for MCPVP is that under this perspective all ranks and permanent purchases are in fact in breach. Previously this hasn't been a problem but in the past week this has been raised and action has been promised. A change of the EULA has been announced to include a way for servers to cover running costs, most likely (not confirmed but leaked) restricting payments to be Pay For Entry or by Donations.

donations are no problem, but only in that purest sense, you get *NOTHING* back for a donation

While I doubt that Mojang would be stupid enough to follow through with attempting to shut down those servers in violiation (95% of servers at least) despite their threats to do so, it is something we all should be aware of and is really interesting to follow.

This will basically kill all servers and mods. I think it's silly for Mojang to believe people buy Minecraft ONLY to play vanilla/single player.

3000hunter
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2014-06-06T01:23:49Z —
#3

Man this is dumb, even for Mojang.So all major servers are going to suffer... did they even think what will happen?No donations -> No money -> No more money for dedicated server hosting -> All huge servers shut down -> No more fun custom coded servers -> All 16 slot, vanilla/small bukkit servers with 15 minute uptimes.This makes Minecraft less popular, with less people buying it, so it ends up biting them in the butt .... like why.

Koriash
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2014-06-06T01:27:13Z —
#4

Mojang is turning Minecraft into a Blocky RuneScape... 1 Change : Loses half of the players.

3000hunter
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2014-06-06T01:29:53Z —
#6

Lol more like 95%+

Koriash
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2014-06-06T01:31:21Z —
#7

The only reason i stopped playing Cracked minecraft and bought an original Copy was to play on Servers... If they change this im gunna want my 19,90$ back

Same with me, a lot of people buy multiable accounts so they can play on servers they got banned on.

ForswornDragon
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2014-06-06T01:36:35Z —
#10

Yeah he is, there's an hours worth of reading there with im repeating that if you like it reflects in Mojang's updates though, they really don't care about pvp at all and aren't afraid to overhaul it at every update. He's a Game Developer and really isn't very good at recognising what the community is, this is why Mojang needs a dedicated PR staff....

doggy3322
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2014-06-06T01:37:19Z —
#11

wtf u know u can get a account for 40 cents right?

3000hunter
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2014-06-06T01:38:11Z —
#12

Oh great, bundle of joy has arrived.

doggy3322
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2014-06-06T01:38:38Z —
#13

im just helping u out my man

bllod542
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2014-06-06T03:19:51Z —
#14

This would drop at least half of the people playing minecraft, like 5 million people (discluding the accounts that are banned, people that quit, stolen, etc). Some YouTubers that have millions of subcribers and millions of views on Minecraft videos will be "shut down" (figuratively). More will protest. Although Mojang has made other gamemodes, it won't be as popular as Minecraft. :/ I don't know what they are thinking.

Someone on the minecraft forums made this petition... if anyones interested

Keep MCPVP alive- sign the petition.

Boss
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2014-06-06T03:48:16Z —
#17

Bullshit. Minecraft IS becoming an industry and should be treated like one. Not only does this affect McPVP, but it affects 97% of minecraft players. Most server owners depend on sales/donations to keep their server running. Without being able to make money, they can not pay the hosts. If the hosts dont make money, they'll have to close down due to not enough sales and we wont have any dedicated servers. As someone else said, all of the servers will be 16 slot vanilla servers and those 2 or 3 fucking servers that Mojang allows.

Bullshit. Utter bullshit is what this is.

whodamanj
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2014-06-06T03:57:55Z —
#18

People. People. Calm down. You all are panicking. Everything is going to be ok. @jacobcrofts will tell you why this isn't a big deal. (Sorry for putting you on the spot but you're YouTube comment was really good so.. )

dustydave
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2014-06-06T04:00:52Z —
#19

Many Mojang could pay server owners and Mojang would sell the advantages

ForswornDragon
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2014-06-06T04:11:59Z —
#20

Jacob's Comment on the youtube video for those wondering, I agree with him to an extent.

Think about the disastrous outcome for Mojang/Minecraft if profiting from servers were to suddenly become illegal; there's no way they're going to do it. Selling stacks of diamond blocks is a very different story - it's an indication of terrible server management. If you're looking for quick, cheap profit at the expense of the gaming experience, then (sorry) your server NEEDS to be shut down.

Why are we overreacting to something which has ALWAYS been in the terms and conditions and which has not changed one bit for many months or been enforced in controversial situations?

We're forgetting that Mojang has demonstrated on multiple occasions that it is both well-run and ethical. Need a reminder?

Mojang refused to partner with Facebook on the Oculus project because Facebook's motives and relevance to the independent gaming industry were questionable. Proof: http://notch.net/ [post from March 25, 2014]

Mojang was offered a cut of all profits from YouTube videos which involved Minecraft, no strings attached. Because this would have hurt the YouTubers who rely on MC for a salary, Mojang declined the offer. Proof: https://twitter.com/notch/status/335045859156819969

Mojang allows developers to write client/server mods, open servers of their own, and profit massively from these servers. Mojang has not requested compensation OF ANY KIND for the use of their software even though they would be fully entitled to compensation if they wanted it. It's called symbiosis.

This is what happens when you put smart people in charge of things. I can think of more than a few governments which should try a similar strategy.

JacobCrofts
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2014-06-06T05:40:10Z —
#21

Yeah, I don't think I would change anything I said at this point. I did say this, however, before there was any indication that Mojang is re-vamping their position on the distribution/modification of their work. I thought people were just realizing something which has been true all along - that Mojang could shut down all our servers or request a portion of our profits if they so desired.

It seems that Mojang wants to make their stance on this issue clearer, so let's see what exactly that entails before we sign petitions against them.